Bocchi the School Shooter

Retribution

"Mama, papa, I'm sorry."

Hitori Gotoh laughed. She stood at the gate of Shuka High, trembling with terror. Her pink jacket protected her from the breezy early morning wind. She never wanted things to end like this. She wanted her high school years to be rose-coloured. She wanted friends, she wanted success, she wanted to experience the best years of a person's life. She wanted friends, someone she could go to karaoke with, someone to goof off with after school. But she failed. She couldn't make a single friend. She sat alone, ate lunch alone, went home alone. Always alone.

"I guess I truly lived up to my name."

She wondered where it all went wrong. From a young age she noted a discrepancy, a distance between her and other children. She never knew how to interact, how to talk to people. Maybe it was fear. Maybe some ability which others possessed but she didn't. She preferred being at home. Home, where her family was. Home, which was safe.

Her skirt fluttered lightly in the wind; a flurry of thoughts went through her head. Maybe she should turn back. Maybe there is still time.

"No, I have to do this."

She walked into the school campus. She had a guitar bag on her back. It was lighter than usual. She positioned herself behind a bush, near the entrance to the main building of Shuka High. She pulled the bag off her shoulder and dragged out a long slender apparatus with a round cylindrical end.

"ArmaRite Rifle-15..my father got this as a gift from his friend in the US, civilians aren't supposed to own such weapons. But my father kept it hidden in the attic of our house."

Hitori had found the gun 3 years ago, just when she picked up the guitar. Desperately looking for a dark, damp place where she could practice in peace, she snuck into the attic. It was large but extremely cramped. She noticed the gun lying in a corner, next to a box of unused cutlery. Eventually she decided to practice in the closet of her room. But she did not forget about the gun.

"I will do it, I will have my revenge on the world, the people who wronged me. I did so much, I wanted them to be my friends. I wore merch from popular bands, I bought mainstream CDs just so I could discuss music with my classmates. I brought all kinds of stuff to school, just so someone would talk to me."

Her hands tremored slightly as the trauma of the past 3 years resurfaced in her head.

"I know I can't expect others to take the initiative, but whenever I tried to talk to someone, they would just ignore me. Whenever I said something someone else would interrupt and talk over me. I was marked absent several times because the teacher didn't hear me say 'Present!' even though I was loud enough. It's like I don't have a presence at all. I am a ghost."

But all this would end now. She would enter the building and start shooting at everyone. She will be indiscriminate. No one will be spared. This was her revenge for years of torture and suffering.

With a few quick steps Hitori infiltrated the building. Her hand was on the trigger, fingers ready to kill. Her eyes were moist, her body quivering. She got near the lockers where students would keep their shows before entering the classroom.

To her surprise, there was nobody around. The lockers were deserted, as was the rest of the floor. Thinking back, Hitori realized she hadn't seen any school students while hiding in the bush either. She looked at the time on her phone.

"9.17am, everyone should be here by now."

She once again saw the time on her phone, it was unmistakably 9.17 in the morning. She looked at the date next to the time.

"Oh."

She saw the date and day on her phone.

"I see."

"Today is Sunday."